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The Russian Symbolist poet Konstanti Balmont translated Edgar Allen Poe’s historic four-part poem into Russian. Rachmaninoff, in a gesture replete with Modernist notions of appropriation and re-articulation, set the poem for a massive ensemble composed of soloists, chorus, and orchestra. From the silver bells of the wedding to the iron bells of the funeral, Rachmaninoff uses one of the most central elements of Russian musical culture, the bells, to trace the different stages of life. His arrangement highlights the complex collection of sounds available to a composer, and he makes full use of this range through the re-articulation and redefinition of bell sounds throughout the composition.
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